Rain Dead Wicked weather in a wild third round killed a crop of contenders

The massacre at Muirfield began innocently enough. Last Saturdaydawned with light rain, a faint breeze and a bit of a chill,conditions that the natives would rank somewhere between a weedampie and bloody typical. When Duffy Waldorf arrived at theMuirfield clubhouse early in the afternoon, the sky had cleared."It was sunny and bright and only a little breezy," saidWaldorf, who was tied for the lead and had a 3:20 p.m. tee time."I was the happiest guy in the world."

The Duffy, as he's known on his hat, ducked inside for a quicklunch. When he stepped back out, "it was raining and howling,"he said. "What happened?" Welcome to Scotland, where sunny skiesgo to die.

What ensued was the squall that ate the 131st British Open. Or,at least, the storm that swallowed the Grand Slam. Saturday'sweather was not even close to the worst seen east of Edinburghthis year, but the conditions were the most horrendous in therecent history of major championships, more brutal even than thetorrential rain that hit the second round of this summer's U.S.Open. The wind gusted to more than 30 mph, the rain blewsideways, and the temperature dropped so low--to a windchill of38[degrees]--that the players and the fans could see theirbreath. Starting his round just as the squall hit, Tiger Woodsshot the highest score of his professional career, a 10-over-par81, falling from a tie for ninth to 67th place by the end of theday. "On the 4th or 5th hole, I don't know if there was sleet ornot," Woods said, "but that rain hurt."

The storm was as strong as it was sudden. "I teed off at 1:55,"said Corey Pavin, who hit woods on three of the four par-3 holesand shot 75, "and it started raining at, oh, 1:58. You can'tplay in worse weather, unless it's snowing." Said Soren Hansenof Denmark, "I was on the range, and it was hammering down sohard you could hardly hit balls. It was like the apocalypse. Iwas simply trying to survive." Hansen scraped out a 73, in partbecause he had one of the final tee times, and the wind and rainlessened in the early evening, giving those players a break.Nevertheless, Saturday's final eight twosomes were a combined 88over par.

Even though only about half the field had to contend with theworst of the squall, there were more scores in the 80s (10) thanin the 60s (four). The first 20 groups had an average score of72.59. For the final 22 pairings, the average ballooned to 76.41.Only three scores were worse than Woods's. One of them belongedto Colin Montgomerie. A day after tying the course record with a64, he gallumphed to an 84, tying Lee Janzen for high round ofthe day. (Warren Bennett had an 82.)

"I can't remember anything like it since the British Amateur atHoylake in 1975," said Nick Price, who shot a 75 on Saturday."It was potluck out there. You don't expect this at Muirfield inJuly." Here's what Price really didn't expect: At the 4th hole,a par-3 that measured 209 yards to the pin--straight into thewind--Price watched Montgomerie hit a three-wood 20 yards shortof the green. "There's only one club for this shot," Price toldhis caddie, and pulled a driver, which got him onto the green,two yards short of pin-high. "So the ball went about 207," saidPrice, "but that was probably the best green in regulation I'veever had."

The strange day caused strange shots. Stephen Ames of Trinidadwas trying to tee off on the 4th hole when the club slipped outof his hands on his downswing. He hit the ball, but it squirtedoff into the fescue, and Ames didn't even bother to look for itbecause there was no chance it would be playable. He reteed andmade a quadruple-bogey 7 en route to an 81. Janzen badly hookedhis drive off the 5th tee and hit a provisional. Luckily hefound the first one, "because we never found the provisional,"said Janzen, who nonetheless suffered a double bogey.

Even the long hitters were turned into Lilliputians. The field'saverage driving distance on the two holes used for measuring,the 5th and the 10th, were 285.3 and 268.0 yards, respectively,on Thursday. On Saturday the average on 5 was only 246.9, and on10 it was 245.7. Woods hit a five-iron all of 135 yards on hissecond shot on the 378-yard 3rd hole, and, he said, "I rippedit." Sergio Garcia, who played only half of his round in theheavy stuff and shot a 71, hit driver, three-wood on the475-yard 10th and said he had "no chance to reach the green."When Garcia finished, he was two under for the tournament andtied for seventh. Asked if he'd go back out if he could be fourunder (which would've tied him for the lead at that point), helaughed and said, "I don't want to be out there even if I'm 11under." Right answer. By day's end he was tied for third.

Waldorf had the wildest ride. He shot a 45 on the front nine andwas 10 over through 10 holes but then birdied five holes on theback for 32 and a surreal 77. "I couldn't feel anything," hesaid. "Usually when it gets this cold, it snows."

Waldorf topped his tee shot at the 6th hole into a large bush 35yards in front of the tee. He topped his provisional into thesame bush and told his caddie, "We'd better find that first onebecause I sure don't want to play the provisional." They foundboth balls a few feet apart. Waldorf took an unplayable and wentback to the tee for a third tee shot, this time to replay hisfirst ball. When he finally holed out for his second straightdouble bogey, he couldn't figure out his score on the hole. "Iwas running out of brain cells," he said. "That took a lot outof me."

The luckiest players were the ones who were one or two overafter the second round and seemingly out of the tournament. Theywent out early and finished ahead of the bad weather. IanWoosnam started the day in 69th place, at two over. Aftershooting a 73, he watched on TV as the rest of the field battledthe brutal elements. "I was waiting for my name to come up tothe leader board...at four over par," said Woosnam, who didrise 15 places, to 54th. "I had a bit of a smile on my face."

On Saturday that put him in a small minority.

COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB MARTIN [INSIDE COVER] BRITISH OPEN Ernie Els MASTER OF MUIRFIELDCOLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY FRED VUICH [INSIDE T of C] SANDSATIONAL Ernie Els handled Muirfield's steep-faced bunkers better than most last week, making a couple of crucial sand saves on Sunday to win his third major.COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY HEINZ KLUETMEIER WHIPPED The fans had come to see Woods go for the Grand Slam but instead saw him get slam-dunked by the weather.TWO COLOR PHOTOS: ROBERT BECK (HANSON, PETTERSSON) COLDCOCKED Stung by the storm were (clockwise from left) Hansen (73), Des Smyth (74) and Carl Pettersson (76).COLOR PHOTO: BOB MARTIN [See caption above]

"It was hammering down so hard you could hardly hit balls," saidHansen. "It was like the apocalypse."